We’ve been here before, but it wasn’t quite the same. The frequently sun-struck paintings in the engaging exhibition, Continuity and Change: The Return to Figurative Painting,
now at Cincinnati Art Galleries, are the work of seven area artists —
Emil Robinson, Rob Anderson, Linda E. Anderson, Aidan Schapera, Brian
Burt, Tim Kennedy and Eve Mansdorf — many of whom have looked long and
hard at 17th century Dutch paintings, French Impressionist paintings and
American artists who have done the same. And having looked long and
hard, with a glance at the 20th century as well, each is now proceeding
in his/her individual manner. Their work is far from abstraction, but if
abstraction hadn’t happened they wouldn’t paint the way they do.

Brushwork, an artist’s signature stroke,
is a distinguishing feature throughout. This suggests an enjoyment of
painting for painting’s sake and, when well done, invites the viewer
into similar pleasures.

Emil Robinson uses broad sweeps of color,
more complex on second glance than on first, that suggest interiors. He
often doesn’t show the faces of his human subjects but suggests quiet
and contemplation, and now and then puts in something surprising like a
flowered curtain to see if you’re paying attention. His work here falls
into two groups: one relatively large format and the other with
dimensions in inches rather than feet. He calls these small works
“Nocturnes.” One of them, a shadowy arrangement of browns and grays, has
a dim figure at right holding the only bright note of the painting,
perhaps an illuminated cell phone? Its down-home domesticity is
reflected in the title: “Waiting for the Bathroom.”

Rob Anderson’s people are also shown in
interiors, always windowed and filled with light, although introspection
seems to rule.

While Robinson is caught in the interaction of shapes in
his interiors, Anderson’s paintings are all about the subjects. The
shapes interacting there are, for instance, the varying placement of the
legs of the woman, the man and the dog in “Family Portrait.” In another
mood, Anderson has made two groups of very small paintings, one showing
only the backs of individual’s heads (neat, shaggy, sometimes
pony-tailed) and the other, titled “People I’ve Come to Know,” is made
up of three-quarter views of the face. His subjects are affectionately
portrayed but not prettified.

The paintings of Linda E. Anderson (no
relation) are an exciting jumble of interiors — tilted, almost overlaid,
like memories intermingling. She imposes artistic order on these
disparate elements and allows you to make what you will of them,
although in her artist’s statement she says her paintings “linger in [a]
transitory state, after the collapse or on the brink of epiphany.”

A little group of paintings, unlike
anything else in the show in their muted color, is the work of a young
South African-born artist, Aidan Schapera, friend of some of the other
artists on view here, who died unexpectedly of a heart condition when
plans for this exhibition were already underway. His artist’s statement
was finished; he writes that these small works use “only black and white
paint tinted slightly with weak blue or sienna pigment to tint the
tones warmer or cooler.” As portraits, they carry a sense of figures
emerging from his imagination; they are “a skeptical examination of the
aftermath of a fable,” he writes. Rough surfaces further a sense of the
figures being torn from some other dimension.

Brian Burt, on the other hand, comes from
the long line of painters whose subjects are at home on the beach, who
wade in the ocean, who luxuriate in sand and sky and water. They are
sharply presented, a thoroughly modern take, and are accompanied by a
couple of the artist’s amusing self-portraits. In the one I liked best,
“A Portrait A Painter A Palette,” the viewer has suddenly become his
subject; he leans around his easel and looks directly out of the canvas
at you.

The final two artists, Tim Kennedy and
Eve Mansdorf, share the generous corner gallery. They are husband and
wife, both inspired by their shared household — he does the interiors,
she does the backyard. His colors are quieter, sometimes suggesting
evening; hers are sun-lit and strong. These are works that could easily
fall into sentiment but sidestep that mistake and instead suggest that
ordinary life has both pleasures and thoughtful moments.

There’s much to like in this exhibition,
including the thought that figurative painting returns with a new string
or two to its bow.

CONTINUITY AND CHANGE is on view at Cincinnati Art Galleries (225 E. Sixth St., Downtown) through June 8. More info: cincinnatiartgalleries.com.